Oratorio dei Crociferi

The foundation of the Ospizio dei Crociferi – originally established to give shelter to the sick and the
pilgrims who were making their way to or from the Holy Land during the era of the Crusades – can be set
between the eleventh and the twelfth century.

Transformed into an almshouse for needy widows around 1400, the Ospizio dei Crociferi is one of the few
Venetian institutions of this kind to have kept its fifteenth-century appearance.

It houses significant paintings by Palma the Younger. The pictorial cycle, painted between 1583 and 1592,
narrates episodes relating to the Crociferi fathers and the two benefactor doges. The building opposite,
with a portal surmounted by crosses, also testifies to the presence of that order. Remains of the ancient
church are the pure paintings of Palma the Younger preserved in the nearby Jesuit sacristy.

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